USB Port Issue and More

A few days ago my xbox one S stopped recognizing the external hard drive i had connected through the USB port. We did a soft restart, a hard restart, unplugged the power from the xbox to clear the cache and I also reset the console (while saving my games
and apps). Nothing I did would help the console recognize the hard drive. At this point, everything else is working fine. The next day, we turned on the console to use the Netflix app and now we have no sound coming from the HDMI connection. Video is fine.
I plug the HDMI into the xbox 360 we have and video and sound come out fine. Plug it back into the One S and no sound. I order a new HDMI (even tho the one i have is fine) and a new cable for the hard drive in case that is the issue. Today I get the new
cords and attempt to try to fix the issue and now none of the wireless controllers will sync no matter what i do. The wired controller will also not turn on. I'm at the point where I can't do anything with this xbox now. Does anyone have any idea what
could be going on and why everything seems to be failing?

In summary - xbox one s stops recognizing hard drive (tho the light comes on when i plug it in, so it's getting power), now the sound won't come thru via the HDMI connection and the controllers have given up on me (both wireless and wired). I honestly just
want to open it up since it's out of warranty anyway.

Any help or suggestions are super appreciated as it's my kids' box and they are pretty sad at losing all their lego characters in their games. THANKS!!

You should never open up your Xbox, you should take it to a store for fixing.

To troubleshoot USB issues I always try more than one USB port on the computer, sometimes different ports on a machine are built to different standards/technologies. something that doesn't work in one port might work in another.

Have you observed if your controller works fine even if it's used or connected more than an hour from a different PC? I believe that the issue is with your USB ports or drivers from your other PC.

To further isolate the issue, try to plug in other USB devices like USB flash drive or keyboard & mouse if they perform normally when connected to USB ports of the PC that has the issue.

the only ports we need more of are usb ports.

Kind of found a "solution". I have to unplug the USB cable from whichever usb port it is connected to and plug it into another whenever I want to use the controller. So, for instance, I am using USB-port A and then I stop using the controller. The next time I have to switch it to USB-port B. The time after that I can switch it BACK to port A and so on. I am unsure what is causing this issue as my PS5 controller works consistently no matter where it is plugged in and my Arctis 7+ charges just fine in any USB port.

This might not be a solution but more of a work around.